On the afternoon of October 7, 1995, Scott Kamieniecki prepared to take the mound at the Kingdome for what would be the pinnacle of his Yankees tenure. As would be the case throughout that tenure, though, the moment was fraught. On the heels of a near-family tragedy the day prior that left him shaken, the 31-year-old who had endured demotions, reassignments, injuries, and struggles for the past five years was handed the ball with the chance to lead his team to victory in its first playoff series
since 1981.
Scott Andrew Kamieniecki
Born: April 19, 1964 (Mount Clemens, MI)
Yankees Tenure: 1991-96
Scott Kamieniecki grew up in Metro Detroit, starring at St. Mary’s of Redford High School before getting taken in the second round of the 1982 MLB Draft by his hometown Tigers. He spurned them, instead enrolling at the University of Michigan. A rare player to see his stock drop during his college years, Kamieniecki would end up drafted by the Yankees in the 14th round in 1986, facing long odds to work his way to the big leagues.
He steadily rose through the ranks, finishing the 1990 season at Double-A. But it was his performance at the following spring training that put Kamieniecki on the path to the Show. “What we saw of Scott in spring training opened up a lot of eyes,” Yankees pitching coach Mark Connor later said. “The first day I saw him throw on the side, I told him, ‘that stuff is good enough to pitch in the big leagues.’”
That ‘stuff’ included a fastball that topped out in the low 90s, unremarkable in today’s game but enough to earn him a reputation as a fireballer in the early 1990s. His greatest hurdle was the mental side of the game. Highly competitive on the mound, Kamieniecki would later recall how living and dying with every pitch held him back early in his pro career. “I would have been out there in the second or third inning and had a negative attitude, like, ‘Here we go again, it’s not my day,’” he said of his ability to cope with adversity. “Now, I try to channel my energies somewhere else. If a guy gets a base hit, it’s not the end of the world.”
Kamieniecki started the year at Triple-A in 1991, where his 2.36 ERA with just two homers allowed in 76.1 innings made him a standout. A late bloomer at 27, he was ready at the right time, when the Gene Michael-led front office was beginning to promote its promising youngsters instead of trading them away for established veteran talent. “There’s a lot better atmosphere, knowing you’ve got a chance,” Kamieniecki said. “In the past, they neglected their system and traded guys away for a quick fix. Now they’ve brought up three or four of our players, and we’re feeling like a part of the Yankee future.”
His comments would prove remarkably prescient. Kamieniecki was called up to make his big-league debut just a week later, allowing two runs over six innings to earn his first victory. He was a bright spot on a team that would finish the year 20 games below .500, posting a 2.68 ERA through his first seven starts. Nonetheless, the following camp, he was forced into a battle with Greg Cadaret for the final spot in the rotation. It would begin a frustrating cycle that would go on throughout Kamieniecki’s Yankees career, with the right-hander shuttling between the rotation and bullpen with remarkable regularity.
Kamieniecki started 48 games between 1992 and 1993, a high-water mark during his time in New York. He pitched to a 4.23 ERA and 95 ERA+, serving as a solid contributor for a struggling team but doing little to cement his status going forward. Before the 1994 season, with the Yankees on the come-up, they signed veteran Bob Ojeda, a key cog on the ‘86 Mets nearly a decade earlier, supplanting Kamieniecki in the team’s rotation. While the veteran endured the indignity of returning to the bullpen, Ojeda lasted a combined three innings through two starts before the Yankees cut him loose. Back in a starting role, Kamieniecki was circumspect. “You can’t get upset and you can’t carry it out on the field,” he said at the time. “I’ve worked too hard.”
He’d stick in the rotation most of the season, putting up his best numbers in pinstripes. At 30, it looked like Kamieniecki might finally have the wind at his sails.
Of course, Kamieniecki would end up one of many victims of the labor dispute that would end the MLB season in August.
The following season, he’d miss time with injury early in the year on the Wild Card-winning club and nearly lose his job in August, this time to a young starter at Triple-A named Mariano Rivera. “It’s New York,” Kamieniecki said. “It’s the way things were before I got here and the way things will be after I leave. You have two or three bad games and you’re on the hot seat. I’m used to it.”
Nonetheless, the resilient right-hander stuck in the rotation, making a pivotal start in Game 4 of the ALDS with the chance to send the Yankees to the doorstep of the pennant. The day prior, his children were involved in a house fire that nearly turned into a tragedy. “You’re talking maybe 30 seconds more and you lose both kids,” he said later of the jarring incident which nearly precluded him from pitching in the biggest game of his life.
Kamieniecki ended up taking the bump, though he allowed five runs (four earned) in five innings in an eventual loss. The next spring he faced a familiar fate after undergoing elbow surgery in the offseason, with another member of the ‘86 Mets, Dwight Gooden, signed to take his place in the rotation. This time, he didn’t find out directly from new skipper Joe Torre but instead heard from the press that he would be on the outside looking in. A professional but disgruntled Kamieniecki called the situation “deja vu three years over,” adding simply, “nothing surprises me around here.”
When he did get the chance to pitch, he did little to build trust with his new manager, allowing 30 runs in 22.2 innings. ”If he’s like he was the last two starts, we have to start looking,” Torre said after Kamieniecki’s final outing in pinstripes. ”We can’t afford to have starters pitch two innings. It’s detrimental to the rotation and to the bullpen.” He was sent down shortly thereafter and non-tendered after the season.
After his departure, Kamieniecki was more blunt about his dissatisfaction with how he was treated in New York. He claimed the team put him on the DL with a “bogus” elbow injury, decried Joe Torre as a liar, and expressed frustration that the team made a public showing of getting him sized for a World Series ring but never gave him one.
By the time he made those comments, though, he was on to greener pastures. Kamieniecki had a career year in 1997 at the age of 33, going 10-6 with a 4.01 ERA while starting 30 games for the playoff-bound Orioles. He’d end up tossing eight scoreless innings in the ALCS against Cleveland that year, a performance which no doubt felt like a vindication of his second-class status while a Yankee.
Kamieniecki would spend two more seasons in Baltimore before splitting 2000 between Cleveland and Atlanta. He briefly returned to the Yankees as a non-roster invitee in 2001 spring training, seemingly burying the hatchet with Torre, but he didn’t make the cut. His career would end with eight games for the Iowa Cubs.
In all, the 14th-rounder who didn’t crack the big leagues until the age of 27 ended up sticking for 10 years, proving that he belonged. Kamieniecki appears to have left any hard feelings over his treatment by the Yankees in the past, making his Old-Timers’ Day debut in 2019.
Join us in wishing a happy 62nd birthday to a reliable and resilient Yankee if ever there was one.
See more of the “Yankees Birthday of the Day” series here.
